Last week we told you about the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0, a software-agent-free tool that assesses IT environments for various platform migrations and virtualization.

Today let's turn our attention to another newly updated tool: the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 2 (a.k.a. MDT).

Designed to streamline the deployment of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, MDT 2010 Beta 2 offers a wealth of improvements and new features. Here's a sampling:

Deployment Workbench Enhancements

• Manage multiple Deployment Shares from a single Deployment Workbench including local Deployment Shares or from a network location including standalone DFS shares


• Replicate content between Deployment Shares through "Linked Deployment Shares" and use selection profiles to manage what content gets replicated


• Multiple users can now interact with the same Deployment Share


• Create folders to manage Drivers, Task Sequences, Operating Systems, and OS Packages


• Drag-and-drop, copy-and-paste, and cut-and-paste between folders or between Deployment Shares

Good stuff, no? For a complete list of Beta 2's benefits, see the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Team Blog. (Wow, seems like Microsoft has blogs for everything these days. Which is good, of course.)

All you need to download the MDT 2010 Beta 2 is a Windows Live ID or TechNet membership.

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